Hinderaker, Worst Blogger of the Year

Since Power Line does not allow trackbacks, much less comments, these days, I use the term "blogger" very loosely. And since I'm feeling amicable, I'd like to make sure John Jay Ray isn't upset about Hindy usurping his title; they are kindred spirits after all.

In my attempts to finally finish a post that I've been working on for a week now, I've been following one of the most boring issues to come along in a while: judicial filibusters and the nuclear option.

In true form, Hinderaker (nee Hindrocket) has swallowed the Luntz line. He refers to the rule change tactic as the "Constitutional option", and has taken it upon himself to misunderstand every syllable coming out of Senate Democrats as in this morning's whine and sleaze festival ("Democrats Reject Compromise on Judges"):

As we noted yesterday, Bill Frist's offer of a compromise on judicial nominations was a statesmanlike effort. It was scrupulously fair to both parties, constrained the majority just as it would the minority--more, really, since absent the compromise, the majority, Republican or Democrat, would always have the Constitutional option at its disposal--and effectuated the principle, endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Americans of both parties, that all judicial nominees should be voted on.

This is riddled with opinion and speculation, two characteristics of high quality conservative blogs and even some very low quality lefty blogs. But what really sets Li'l Johnny apart from the rest of us is his unwillingness to analyze, and his drive to call Harry Reid's response to the "compromise" "childish and incoherent". How funny coming from a guy who wrote this.

"But this is standard fare for conservative talk radio. What's your beef?" you may be asking. Simple, really: Hinderaker was so intent on using this Washington Times article to make Reid look like a moron that accuracy became a minor enemy. By the Hindy method of blockquoting, I would be able to get away with this:

Hindrocket made an ass(rocket) of himself here:

The majority would always have the Constitutional option at its disposal, [which is] endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Americans of both parties, that all judicial nominees should be voted on.

Harry Reid's response was childish and incoherent.

Reid's incoherence couldn't conceal what he didn't dare say out loud: obstruction is the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.

Note the lack of elipses to denote gaps in the original author's words. Due to Bottomrocket's propensity for nimrod-style cutting and pasting, I've provided a corrected version of the blockquote in his post (just to expedite the correction we're not likely to see):

[T]he Senate's top Democrat immediately expressed doubt about the proposal, calling it "a big wet kiss to the far right."

^...

"I don't really like the proposal given, but I'm not going to throw it away," Mr. Reid said. "I'm going to work on it."

^...

In his floor speech, Mr. Reid called Mr. Frist's proposal a "slow-motion nuclear option."

"After 100 hours, the rights of the minority are extinguished," he said, acknowledging that the purpose of the filibusters hasn't been to continue debate on nominees, but simply to stop them.

^...

"I say to everyone within the sound of my voice: 'Test us,' "he said. "Let's see how we can do in the future. I can't say there won't be any filibusters, but I think we're going to have a much better situation."

See those little dotted thingies, John? That's where words used to be. I should also point out that the amount of quotations used from the Washington Times article may be in violation of Fair Use, but that's for another day, LGF & FreeRepublic.

There's all of this on top of Hinderaker never really telling us why he found Reid's statements, which sound like the standard line from an opposition party (although, I would have used "forced fellatio" instead of "wet kiss"), to be "childish and incoherent". Well, in the words of John Jay Ray, "We are just supposed to feel outrage as ordered".

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